


Monster Lizard

by Stratagem



Series: Resistance AU [4]
Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 21:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14222661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: James and Ali have to sit through a science lesson with a professor who has no idea how to teach high school kids. They have some fun with him.





	Monster Lizard

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill from Tumblr: 24. “You’re telling me giant lizards roamed this land before we were here? Now that just doesn’t even sound right.” 
> 
> Haha, oh my gosh, I love this one. And it’s perfect for Tracklight. ^_^ Going with the Resistance AU series, set when James and Ali are about 16. Their education in the series is a little all over the place since they can’t go to school, so they’re homeschooled in a way.

“This is a whole new level of suffering.”

“I can feel my brain cells recoiling. It hurts.”

“Mr. Proudstar, Ms. Blaire, your attention is required up here for the next hour. I’m certain you’ll have plenty of time to goof off and pursue teenage hijinks after class. I do not want to repeat myself again.”

James and Ali glanced at each other, the silent message of ‘ _is he really serious_ ’ passing through that quick look. Ali mouthed ‘ _hijinks_ ,’ her eyebrow raising in surprise. Both of them jumped when a yardstick slammed down on the desk at the front of the room. “Yes, hijinks!”

“Sorry,” Ali said, making a face as James grinned at her.

Actually, Dr. Simmons was being entirely serious. A history professor who had recently been chased out of his college for being too pro-mutant, he was currently hiding out at the Underground Headquarters. They were hoping to move him through to the next way station next week, but he kept putting it off, saying he wasn’t ready to leave right yet, and because John tried to take people’s feelings into account, he had become something of a fixture. One that James and Ali hoped would be very temporary.

Honestly, James and Ali hadn’t expected to have much interaction with him. He had been brought in by Marcos and Divinity, and for the first couple days, he had been content to reorganize HQ’s meager library and complain about the food without saying much else. However, once he had finished with the library, he had needed a new project, which John had happily found for him.

James, Ali, and Norah were the only permanent younger members of the Underground, and there was no way they could go to public school. Most of the time, John, Clarice, and Marcos shared the joint task of homeschooling the three of them, generally trying to stay in line with the school district’s online curriculum, but whenever a teacher or someone who had expertise in a subject showed up, they would outsource the job. So the three kids had something of an eclectic education. Any other kid who wandered through the Underground was expected to join the classes depending on ages. Older kids were taught alongside James and Ali while younger ones sat in on Norah’s lessons.

Right now, there were three other teens stuck in the little classroom with James and Ali. Normally, they did lessons out in their favorite sitting area, but when Dr. Simmons had taken over teaching them science, he had demanded an actual classroom, saying that the sitting area was too informal. Apparently it was perfectly fine for them to lounge around and write essays with Clarice or listen to John explain geometry, but when they needed to learn “real science,” they had to sit in chairs and stare at Dr. Simmons.

At the moment, he was droning on about reptiles and something about the likelihood of dragons having feathers or not.

“So does that mean we get to watch Jurassic Park?” the guy with orange hair and streaks of yellow on his skin asked, his hand raised lazily in the air. His name was Nixon, and he had been at HQ for less than a week. He also looked like he couldn’t wait to leave HQ every time someone forced the teens into class with Simmons. James and Ali had attempted to hide out that morning, but John had found them in them under a table in one of the bank’s abandoned room. He was supposed to have been out on a surveillance run, but of course he had gotten back in enough time to make sure they went to class.

“You’re forgetting something,” Dr. Simmons said, tapping the end of his yardstick on the floor. James wondered if he had ever smacked a kid with that thing. Dr. Simmons looked like he was old to have been around when popping a kid with a yardstick was legal.

Nixon blinked. “Does that mean we get to watch Jurassic Park, sir?”

The class held their collective breath. Finally, the chance to do something besides listen to him drone. If they had to make it educational, well, Clarice liked to do this thing where they analyzed movies for themes, scientific accuracy, style, storyline, and all sorts of other stuff. There were lots of times were she started a lesson unit by letting them watch a movie that she then used to segue into something educational. Like that time they watched Braveheart then studied the history of Scotland, the use of make-up in movies, and warfare during that time period.

“Of course we won’t be watching that,” Dr. Simmons said, “Dinosaurs are not the stuff that horror movies should be made of. Paleontology is a respected field that that movie made a mockery of.”

“But it’s just a movie,” Ali said, frustrated, “It’s not like they’re presenting it as the truth.”

“But they’re presenting it as a possibility,” Dr. Simmons argued, “Which I cannot condone. If dinosaurs roamed the Earth at the same time as humans, we would be extinct.” He went off on a tangent about digs and bones and a hundred things that really could have been interesting if he wasn’t being so forcefully boring about the whole thing. It was as if someone had unearthed Dr. Simmons from a bygone era where everything had to be presented to students in the most dry, impossibly boring way possible in order for it to sink in.

Ali felt her head drooping forward, and it was so tempting to try napping. She didn’t care if Dr. Simmons slammed that yardstick on her chair. If he did, she had a plan. She would laser it in half, take both halves to John, slam them on his desk, and declare herself free from this tyrannical, oppressive dictator of a professor. And if he didn’t like it, tough. She would, um, well, ask for a transfer to a way station until Dr. Simmons left.

Long fingers tapped her leg to get her attention, and she sat up, looking over at James. He gave her a devilish grin and then made his face a mask of innocence. “So…okay. You’re telling me giant lizards roamed this land before we were here? Now that just doesn’t even sound right.”

Dr. Simmons stared at James. “Excuse me?”

James leaned back in his chair, forcing it to tilt backwards even though it was a massive, heavy armchair. “These lizard things. You’re trying to make me think they’re real.”

“You…You’re questioning the existence of dinosaurs?” Dr. Simmons frowned and crossed his hands, clasping them together. “Or is this an attempt to fluster me…”

“Maybe we’re all secretly dinosaurs,” said one of the other girls in the class, her extra-large eyes trained on the ceiling.

James gave a solemn nod. “Yeah, that.”

“I feel like a giant lizard some days,” Ali said with a toothy smile, “Like I could tear somebody’s head off.”

“As diverting as this conversation is, we should get back to the topic at hand.” Dr. Simmons looked completely put out.

“You can’t tear anybody’s head off,” James said, “But you could do the laser thing.”

“If you laser someone, there’s no blood, right?” the bug-eyed girl said, now staring at Ali. “Can we see?”

“Maybe later, when we’re doing teenage hijinks,” Ali said pleasantly, folding her hands in her lap.

“I do love me some hijinks,” James said.

“If you’re all quite finished,” Dr. Simmons said, glaring at all of them, “I’d like to finish our original discussion.”

“Tomfoolery completed,” James said, “We just want to learn more about these imaginary lizard giants of yours. Are they anything like the Power Ranger Zords?”

“Or are they like Godzillas?” Ali asked.

James snapped his fingers. "So kaiju are real!"

That night, when Dr. Simmons took the transport to the next way station, James and Ali stood behind John and Clarice and waved at the van until it was out the gates. Clarice turned around, her eyebrows raised. She met Ali’s eyes and grinned. “I don’t know what you guys did, but thanks.”

“Clarice,” John said, trying to discourage her from encouraging them, but there was a smirk on his face as well. Dr. Simmons had been aggravating to everyone and always had something to complain about. He would definitely complain all the way to Mexico, and John knew he would have to call ahead and make sure the next way station was warned about him. John reached out and gently punched James’ shoulder before heading inside. “Hey, I think there’s a copy of Jurassic Park on the DVD shelf.”

“Magically appeared,” Clarice said, looping her arm around John’s waist as they walked toward the group’s favored sitting area. “Someone want to make popcorn?”

Ali and James high-fived each other and headed inside, all about some bad, scientifically inaccurate movies and butter-drenched popcorn.


End file.
